Technical Articles
SAP GUI for Windows 7.70 Beta Program – Call for participation
Update (20th of January 2021): The delivery of SAP GUI for Windows 7.70 will take place on 29th of January 2021.
Update (2nd of June 2020): Thanks to all customers who applied. The list of participants is now complete. Please do not apply anymore.
Hi all,
as mentioned in SAP Note 147519 we are planning to release SAP GUI for Windows 7.70 in September 2020 December 2020.
In order to let you get an impression on the new release before it is officially shipped, to receive feedback and to get into a dialog with some of you we offer a beta program for early adopters. In particular we are interested in feedback related to the new features we introduced:
- Multi-Monitor-Scaling support: Up to release 7.60 we support scaling using the scaling settings of the primary monitor only. For other monitors we let Windows scale the SAP GUI window. This has some drawbacks for example when SAP GUI is embedded in an application which is multi-monitor scaling aware (like the SAP Business Client). See also SAP Note 2541592.
As of release 7.70 multi-monitor scaling can be activated in SAP GUI so that the issues with multiple monitor setups using different scaling settings are solved.
- Edge (based on Chromium) as alternative browser control for use in the SAP GUI HTML Control: Up to release 7.60 the SAP GUI HTML Control always uses the Microsoft Internet Explorer Control, but nowadays Internet Explorer is no longer the default browser in many companies and has several disadvantages.
As of release 7.70 we are offering a more modern browsing experience inside SAP GUI by integrating the Microsoft WebView2 control (Edge based on Chromium) as an alternative to the Internet Explorer Control (see SAP Note 2913405 for more information).
- 64bit versions of NWRFC controls: The SAP GUI shipment includes four controls which can be used for getting data from an SAP System without using SAP GUI: Logon Control, Function Control, BAPI Control and Table Factory Control. Up to release 7.60 these controls are only available as 32bit versions. Especially with the stronger usage of Microsoft Office 64bit editions this has become a challenge, because 32bit controls cannot be easily invoked from a 64bit process.
As of release 7.70 we offer 64bit versions (both non-Unicode as well as Unicode) of these controls which can be installed in parallel to the 32bit versions. With this, scripts using these controls can also be run from 64bit processes like Microsoft Office 64bit.
- New visual theme “Quartz”: The successor to the Belize theme is the Quartz (Fiori 3.0) theme. For the first time we also offer a dark version of the theme that can be used by users who prefer a dark background.Here is how this presently looks:
How to join
If you are interested in participating in the beta program you can apply for registration by creating a support incident now. The incident must be created on component BC-FES-GUI with the title “7.70 beta program” and you should provide:
- A contact person for the beta program with name, email address and S-User ID
- An information about which of the areas mentioned above you are interested in
This data will exclusively be used for organizing the beta program.
Please note that the number of participants is limited and thus only customers who can and will actively participate in the program and are going to use one of the features above should register.
Once you are chosen, you will need to sign an online test and evaluation agreement before getting access to download the beta version of SAP GUI for Windows 7.70.
What you can expect from the program
As soon as the program starts (this is expected early in June), you will get:
- Access to the most current version of SAP GUI for Windows 7.70 for test purposes
- A document with additional information on the new features
- A contact within the SAP GUI development team that you can use to provide feedback to us or ask questions you may have
Beta program for SAP Business Client 7.70
In parallel to the SAP GUI for Windows 7.70 Beta program, a beta program for SAP Business Client 7.70 is conducted. You can find more information in this blog post:
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/05/06/help-wanted-testing-the-sap-business-client-7.70-beta
Kind regards,
Frank Krause
Product Owner SAP GUI for Windows
Interesting news.
Although not exclusively related to SAP GUI, I wonder if there is any plan to offer an (ABAP) API to get info about the theme in use?
Hello Shai,
this already exists since many releases: CL_GUI_RESOURCES=>GET_THEMENAME.
But applications should avoid using this. When a new theme is created (like Quartz in this case) the ABAP code would need to be extended so that it also covers Quartz theme names. Therefore checking for the theme name should be the last option.
If you need to use specific colors, you can use CL_GUI_RESOURCES=>GET_FOREGROUND_COLOR and GET_BACKGROUND_COLOR.
And if you want to check whether the Fiori features are enabled (like in S/4HANA) you can use CL_GUI_FRONTEND_SERVICES=>CHECK_UI_GUIDELINE.
Best regards,
Frank
Many thanks, Frank.
I wasn't aware of this method.
(It seems that older NW releases prior to 7.4 requires a manual implementation of note 1637307 - "new method GET_THEMENAME in CL_GUI_RESOURCES".)
Hi Frank,
Thanks for the update on this.
In your text above you mention
Could you please clarify whether the new 7.7 GUI for Windows will include both Belize and Quartz, or whether there will only be one theme (Quartz). The text seems to suggest the latter.
Information like this is important with regards to existing training literature. We are working on a rollout of the latest available GUI for Windows version in preparation for a S/4 project and need to understand which themes will be available.
Thanks for your help in advance.
M
Hi Michael,
it contains both.
Here is the full list of themes contained in 7.70:
Best regards,
Frank
perfect! Thank you. M
Hello Frank,
with the integration of "Edge WebView2" in SAP GUI 7.70, is there also support for IE Enterprise Mode?
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/edge-ie-mode
Background:
There are some SAP GUI transactions (like CO60) with embedded html control, where the underlaying framework use IE=5 (Quirks-Mode) or other older IE document modes.
2224356 - Internet Explorer 11: No maintenance of browser-based PI Sheets and Electronic Work Instructions
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/ie_standards/ms-iedoco/380e2488-f5eb-4457-a07a-0cb1b6e4b4b5
Best regards
Sven
Hello Sven,
WebView2 is not an Edge Browser, but a newly developed browser control that does not support everything that Edge does. Microsoft has empasized this several times in discussions with us. The Enterprise Mode would require WebView2 to contain an IE control to fallback to. As per Microsoft this is not the case and this is not what they want.
However, we will offer a configuration option for the administrator so that he or she can define systems and applications which shall be continued to run in IE even if you have Edge configured in SAP GUI.
But in the end all applications which are still supported will have to work in Edge, because Microsoft will stop IE support at some time.
Best regards,
Frank
Sven
Hi Frank,
Our company plans to complete the switch to O365 64-bit before the end of the year. This change will render a few of our VBA-based programs non-functional because of the ActiveX control bitness incompatibility issue.
Could you describe some of the feedback you've been receiving from the beta group regarding the new 64bit versions of the NWRFC controls?
I'm trying to get a better idea of what our options are going to be when December comes around. Knowing all we can about the status of the 64-bit controls will help us make a more informed decision on how to proceed with development.
Delaying the transition to 64-bit on the few machines that run RFCs from VBA is an option for a short time, but the goal is to have every user on 64-bit Office as soon as possible.
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
so far the feedback indicates no differences between the 32bit versions and the 64bit versions.
During the cause of the program, we have received very few incidents related to the 64bit NWRFC controls, but I know that more than 10 customers wanted to test them.
From at least 2 customers I got the feedback that the controls are working as per their needs.
I think we can be rather confident.
Best regards,
Frank
Thank you for the quick response, Frank. This is great to hear!
Hi, Frank.
Are you talking about the ActiveX controls like SAP Logon Control (wdtlog.ocx), SAP Remote Function Call Control (wdtfuncs.ocx) and SAP BAPI Control (wdobapi.ocx)? Or is this about sapnwrfc.dll?
Thanks,
Alexandre Dantas.
Hello Alexandre,
in release 7.50 the wdtlog.ocx, wdobapi.ocx, wdtaocx.ocx and wdtfunc.ocx (and the Unicode versions) have been moved from the classical RFC library to SAPNWRFC (technically from librfc32.dll to sapnwrfc.dll).
SAP GUI for Windows 7.70 includes 64bit versions of wdtlog.ocx, wdobapi.ocx, wdtaocx.ocx and wdtfunc.ocx (and the Unicode versions). Since these need sapnwrfc.dll, the delivery also includes a 64bit version of this dll.
Best regards,
Frank
Great, Frank!
Thank you very much!
Any update? Are we still on track for December 2020?
Hello Chris,
No, unfortunately we are not. We realized during our final tests for patchlevel 0 that we cannot ship this due to a number of issues that I do not want to hit our customer base.
We are working on these issues and had to move the shipment date to 29th of January 2021.
Best regards,
Frank
Hi Frank,
Are we on track for jan 29th?
Hello Kuthubus,
yes we are.
Best regards,
Frank
Hi Team
Can you please include logged in application server beside SID which displays logged in appserver by default in belize theme also. This is there in classic theme and in signature theme. But in belize theme to check logged in server we need to click on SIDCLNT to see on which server i logged in.
Can you please include in upcoming release toolbar should display SID CLNT and Logged in APP server for upcoming release.
Regards
Mahesh Kumar Mukkawar
Hello Mukkawar,
no, we are not going to do this. This is a functionality that almost nobody except Administrators in few cases needs. For these cases it is - in my opinion - acceptable to open the menu in the system information area to get the information on the app server.
We have intentionally decided to remove this, because the normal end user does not want to know about this.
Best regards,
Frank
Hello Mukkawar,
since 7.60 there is also another option:
Withe belize theme you can disply the appserver on top at the menu bar and the SID/CLNT in windows task bar with "mouse over" for all open sessions, when you use this SAP GUI "Visualization 2" option:
Regards
Sven